Above we see our Solar System's eight Major Planets and the Sun, each viewed from a distance of 350,000 km from its respective "surface"!  Notice how fast the Gas Giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) rotate compared to the Terrestrial Planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars).  Jupiter rotates once about every 10 hours!  But slow-spinning Venus and Mercury require months to complete a single rotation.  Intriguingly, Mars rotates at almost the same speed as Earth!  Intriguing also, the Sun requires about one month to complete one rotation, about the same amount of time our Moon requires to complete one orbit (revolution) around Earth!

Just as the sizes of the Major Planets are quite different, so also are their distances from the Sun.  The partial cross section above, able to depict only "one side" of the Solar System from the Sun out to Neptune, shows—to scale
—the perihelion and aphelion distances of the Major Planets, as well as the in- clinations of their orbits relative to the Ecliptic, Earth's orbit (shown horizontal here).  Remember: most of the Solar System is empty space!  The sizes of the planets' orbits are immense compared to the sizes of the planets themselves.

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